The announcement of the ban on the legislator from traveling to the United States followed similar measures against the Liberal Progressive deputies Johana Obando and Cynthia Córdoba on February 19th, Trivisión television recalled.

Both parliamentarians related Washington’s decision to the visit in early February to San José of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who threatened to punish “collaborators” of Chinese companies.

The official’s statements touched more closely Obando, who was very critical of the Government for a decree on the Budapest Convention, which left Chinese companies out of the competition for 5G networks in Costa Rica.

The Congresswoman, who had direct disagreements with President Rodrigo Chaves and the Minister of Science and Technology, Paula Bogantes, met some time ago with her colleague Córdoba with a senior official from the Huawei company.

Another Costa Rican official who was a victim of visa cancellations was the auditor of the Electricity Institute, Ana Sofía Machuca, who described the event as a “serious attack on our sovereignty and freedom of expression.”

Like the legislators, the executive was sanctioned for defending investigations into contracts with Huawei and the 5G process linked to China. Machuca clarified that her work as an auditor since 2017 was free from external or political pressure.

For his part, the president of the Legislative Assembly, Rodrigo Arias, declared that the cancellation of visas to deputies Obando and Córdoba by the United States “casts a shadow” on relations with Costa Rica, and called on Washington to reconsider the measure “in a gesture that strengthens the relationship of friendship and cooperation between two allied countries.”

According to Arias, the decision affects “a long history characterized by friendship, cooperation, respectful dialogue and understanding between our countries, particularly when we have sustained political differences.”

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